


Not My Steve Rogers

by inwardphae



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Endgame, Fix-It, Not My Steve, Not My Steve Rogers, Not a fic, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-08 11:23:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18622354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inwardphae/pseuds/inwardphae
Summary: ENDGAME CONSIDERATIONS ON STEVE AND BUCKY: This is not a ficAlright, it took me three days to digest Avengers: Endgame enough to be able to write this rant and it’s SOLELY about Steve Rogers and Steve and Bucky dynamic. Please, read and share if you agree ‘cause I believe that there are things that Marvel should be made aware of.It's truly important! (Also on Tumblr if you wanna share there)Thanks for the help xx





	Not My Steve Rogers

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, it took me three days to digest Avengers: Endgame enough to be able to write this rant and it’s SOLELY about Steve Rogers and Steve and Bucky dynamic. Please, read and share if you agree ‘cause I believe that there are things that Marvel should be made aware of.  
> It's truly important!  
> (Also on Tumblr if you wanna share there: https://giuliawithag.tumblr.com/post/184487033632/not-my-steve-please-share)
> 
> Thanks for the help xx

**Obviously, SPOILERS from now on.**

**ALSO ON TUMBLR[here](https://giuliawithag.tumblr.com/post/184487033632/not-my-steve-please-share) IF YOU WANNA SHARE. WOULD HELP A LOT.**

 

****

 

First thing I wanna say is that I loved the movie, I found it a great hOmage and the rightful conclusion after 11 years of movies, and the right conclusion for so many characters with their specific arch and personal development (never been a fan of Tony Stark, but I truly appreciated his arch in the movie). Except for Steve Rogers. Here’s why.

I found Steve splendid and so well made throughout the whole movie, him trying to help others to move on but at the same time being unable to do it himself exactly because Steve is Steve, because of what he represents. I LOVED the fact that they let him hold Mjolnir -honestly, it was long overdue.  (There’s a bit of a debate about whether or not he should have been able to call the lightning: we know that both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker are catalysts that help Thor direction his own lightning, and in that sense Steve shouldn’t be able to do it. But it’s also true that in the first Thor Odin said “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor”.)

But let’s get to the true problem, the absolute bullshit, the denial of 10 years of work on the character: THE ENDING. There are literally tons of reasons why this conclusion doesn’t work, let’s start from the more obvious ones. And please, note that I’m saying all this not because I personally ship Stucky -I doubt that any Stucky shipper in their right mind would have expected for it to become canon, honestly-, I’m saying his because I’m a person with eyes and that’s enough to realize that there’s something terribly wrong with this choice. Regardless of whatever I wanted or hoped for Steve in this movie.

I find this conclusion an utter and complete disservice to a character who’s had his arch and a specific characterisation: it negates all the efforts, the pain, all the space in the world that Steve managed to carve out for himself in the 21st century. It’s a disservice to Peggy who loses her autonomy as a character, who loses her personal history -we know from TWS that she was married, with kids at least a niece that we know of, she lived her life. It’s a disservice to her own words “none of us can go back, sometimes the only thing we can do is start over”- WHICH, just to remind everyone, was also a quote used in one of the Endgame teasers. I’m saying all this despite the fact that I personally appreciated Peggy very much and despite having loved Peggy and Steve together at the times of TFA. And moreover, after all the pain, the family that Steve managed to create for himself, the battles he fought, what does Steve do? He goes back? He goes back instead of going forward? Steve, “the kid from Brooklyn too dumb not to run away from a fight”, Steve fucking Rogers RUNS AWAY and goes back to the past? Steve denies himself, abandons everyone and goes to the past? No way, no fucking way. I swear I’ve never seen so much OOC in one scene.

There’s also the problem of the potential huge plot hole. There are two options: let’s break it down.

Option 1: Steve goes back to the 1950s, marries Peggy and, as suggested by the timetravel theory used in the whole movie, he creates an alternative timeline to the main one where they live together. And where he (presumably, I hope) goes to save Bucky to prevent 70 years of torture, brainwashing and conditioning, and to prevent the reconstruction of Hydra. Then again, presumably after Peggy’s death in this alternative timeline, he travels through the quantic realm again and gets back to the main timeline where he meets Sam and Bucky. Problems with this option? Well, it doesn’t contradict the timetravel theory of the movie, but there’s still the problem of the other Steve in the alternative timeline, who’s currently frozen in the Arctic. What happens to him?

Option 2: Steve goes back to the 1950s, marries Peggy, he doesn’t create a different timeline and simply lives his life to the point that he meets with Sam and Bucky in 2023, as it seems to be suggested by the fact that Steve is already there, sitting on the bench, when Bucky spots him. He doesn’t get there through the portal. Problems with this option? TONS. First of all, it contradicts the whole timetravel theory of the movie (see above), it implies that at some point Old Steve and Young Steve must have coexisted, and especially it implies that Steve radically changed the past. If he marries Peggy, Peggy doesn’t marry her husband, and the whole future should change. Does it mean that Steve has been Peggy’s husband all along, like in a time loop? Then does it mean that he kissed his own nephew? Sharon *coughs* Carter? As you can see, there are HUGE problems with this option.

But let’s move on from these incongruences for the moment and let’s get to the other utter bullshit: BUCKY BARNES (how handsome was Sebastian Stan in the three seconds that he was on camera by the way?). Now, whether one believes that between Steve and Bucky there’s a romantic interest or just a platonic, brotherly love, it doesn’t really matter. Bucky and Steve’s dynamic has been the focus of the whole Captain America trilogy, and there’s no denying that. Steve, when he tries to distract his double in the 2012 timeline, says “Bucky’s alive”, and honestly that’s the most honest moment dedicated to their relationship, and Bucky wasn’t even there! They drowned us for a whole trilogy with “I’m with you till the end of the line” moments, and the only thing that they leave us with, and the very end, it’s a come back from the first movie with “Don’t do anything stupid until you get back” and the famous reply “How could I? You’re taking all the stupid with you”, and THAT’S IT? Steve goes to live his life and all the best to everyone? Not even a word once he comes back as Old Steve, he’s just there to pass the shield to Sam?  Bucky, the best friend of a lifetime? Bucky for whom Steve fights against the Avengers? Bucky for whom he’s ready to die, Bucky for whom he’d sacrifice himself thousands of times? Bucky for whom he stormed into a Hydra base without proper training and without even knowing if his friend was alive? Bucky for whom he gave up the shield not once, but twice? No way. No fucking way.

This is not about appreciating Bucky and Steve and their dynamic or not, this is about the absurd choice of denying the entire arch of two characters that occupied the space of a whole trilogy. But why?

And come on, Steve’s at least a hundred years old, probably about to die, and they don’t even exchange a few words? I could have handled something like “Hey pal, we made it to the end of the line", I could have lived with that. But not this way. Some part of me tries to think that if anything, at least Steve got to come home from the war. He lived his life. But it’s so terribly wrong, and Steve would never deny himself and his choices, and not because he can’t live without a war, but because he’s always been true to himself. And he would never leave Bucky behind to go back in time and live a life with a woman that -let’s be honest- he knew for two years back in the 40s and with whom he’s already got closure after her death in CA:CW. He moved on. And so did Peggy, to be perfectly honest. Let’s all remind ourselves how utterly destroyed Steve was after Bucky’s ‘death’ and how much he blamed himself: his guilt is literally what moves the two following movies. But the Russos decided to ignore this.

It’s such a horrible thing to do and it’s so unfair that I feel like I want to cry again. And in all of this, Steve didn’t even die, he’s not dead but he doesn’t even get a closure that works for his character. He’s still there, but he’s not really there anymore, is he? And for all those who keep saying how nice is that he got to dance with Peggy, sure it’s nice. But then you really don’t know Steve Rogers at all.

In conclusion, I loved the movie and I’m totally happy with it as a farewell to the MCU as we know it, as a farewell to characters like Tony and Natasha. The only discordant note, sadly, is Steve and his dynamic with Bucky. I don’t know if the Russos did it cause the shipping fandom made them uncomfortable, and honestly, I don’t even want to know. It’s just something that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive Marvel for. And they need to know.

#notmysteve


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